Thromboembolism occurs when a thrombus or blood clot trapped within a blood vessel breaks loose and travels through the blood stream to another location in the circulatory system, resulting in a clot or obstruction at the new location. As shown schematically in FIG. 1, when a clot C forms in the venous circulation V, it often travels to the lungs L via the heart H and lodges within a pulmonary blood vessel PV causing a pulmonary embolism PE. A pulmonary embolism PE can decrease blood flow through the lungs L, which in turn causes decreased oxygenation of the lungs L, heart H and rest of the body. Moreover, pulmonary embolisms can cause the right ventricle RV of the heart H to pump harder to provide sufficient blood to the pulmonary blood vessels PV, which can cause right ventricle RV dysfunction (dilation), and heart failure in more extreme cases.
Conventional approaches to treating thromboembolism and/or pulmonary embolism include clot reduction and/or removal. For example, anticoagulants can be introduced to the affected vessel to prevent additional clots from forming, and thrombolytics can be introduced to the vessel to at least partially disintegrate the clot. However, such agents typically take a prolonged period of time (e.g., hours, days, etc.) before the treatment is effective and in some instances can cause hemorrhaging. Transcatheter clot removal devices also exist, however, such devices are typically highly complex, prone to cause trauma to the vessel, hard to navigate to the pulmonary embolism site, and/or expensive to manufacture. Conventional approaches also include surgical techniques that involve opening the chest cavity and dissecting the pulmonary vessel. Such surgical procedures, however, come with increased cost, procedure time, risk of infection, higher morbidity, higher mortality, and recovery time. Accordingly, there is a need for devices and methods that address one or more of these deficiencies.